The Southeast CDC (SECDC) is dedicated to growing and supporting a thriving, socioeconomically and racially diverse Southeast Baltimore where residents share in the success and improvement of their communities. The Southeast Community Development Corporation is one of the oldest community development corporations in Baltimore. Founded in 1975 as Southeast Development, Inc. (SDI), it was the development arm of the Southeast Community Organization (SECO). Today, the SECDC operates a number of community revitalization programs in the Highlandtown area such as the Highlandtown Main Street District and the Highlandtown Arts and Entertainment District, and the Healthy Neighborhoods program in Greektown, Highlandtown and Patterson Park. With funding from the Baltimore Regional Neighborhood Initiative (BRNI), SECDC also supports work in the CARE, McElderry Park, and Madison East-End neighborhoods. In addition to its community revitalization work, the CDC offers financial counseling, first time homeownership counseling, and foreclosure prevention counseling, and is the lead agency for three Community Schools. This grant provided core operating support.

The mission of Family League of Baltimore is to serve as an architect of change in Baltimore by promoting data-driven, collaborative initiatives and aligning resources to create lasting outcomes for children, families, and communities. Family League occupies a unique role in the city, serving as the Baltimore City Local Management Board, through which it acts as a third-party convener and fund distributor for a wide range of partners and leverages public and private dollars to fund effective social change. This grant provided funds for a community needs assessment to inform upcoming strategic planning work.

Baltimore’s Promise is a collective impact effort focused on creating a continuum of care and services for all youth across their life span in hopes of improving outcomes. It is focused on building a culture of shared accountability and collaboration across Baltimore City. This grant provided funds for general operating support.

This grant supports The ASSOCIATED’s Jewish Community Services, which provides financial assistance to address urgent needs of economically disadvantaged clients, and the Jewish Community Center, which provides need-based scholarships to struggling families.

This grant funds the continuation of the Goldseker Scholars Program, which provides need-based scholarship awards to undergraduates from Baltimore City Public Schools.

This grant supports the Goldseker Fellows Program, which provides financial assistance to graduate students pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees at Morgan State University. Fellows are selected by the University.

Bikemore was established to increase and improve bicycle infrastructure, policies, and awareness to create a safer, healthier and more livable Baltimore through advocacy, education and outreach programs that seek to connect citizens to the benefits of bicycling. In April of 2019, Bikemore was named “Advocacy Organization of the Year” by the League of American Bicyclists, a notable honor given the relative youth and size of the organization. This grant provided core operating support.

ShareBaby was founded in 2014 by three local moms who wanted to help other mothers share their new or gently used baby items with families that need them the most. Diapers and baby gear are not allocated through federal or state assistance programs. The only monies that can be used are Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) which must also be used to cover rent, utilities, transportation and many other essential family costs. In 2019, ShareBaby reached over 15,000 Baltimore city children and distributed over 650,000 diapers. This grant provided core operating support.

Thread is focused on engaging the most at-risk high school students by weaving together a network of volunteers who customize support to meet individual student needs over the course of a decade. Thread’s model seeks to radically reconfigure social support structures for students enrolled to establish a wealth of human connection, permanently linked by unconditional love and support. More than 80 percent of Thread’s alumni have completed a post-high school academic or training program within their ten years in Thread. This grant provided core operating support.

CHAI’s mission is to strengthen neighborhoods with a significant Jewish presence by developing and enhancing housing, affecting community development, and supporting aging-in-community. CHAI provides housing services and works to strengthen schools in Northwest Baltimore through community engagement. This grant provided core operating support.

The mission of Community Law Center is to provide free legal services to community and nonprofit organizations throughout Maryland to promote stronger nonprofits and more vibrant neighborhoods. Each year, staff and volunteer attorneys through CLC deliver over 10,000 billable hours of free legal service valued at over $2,000,000. This grant provided core operating support.

Innovation Works is a social enterprise dedicated to creating business ventures in Baltimore that address unmet economic needs for residents throughout the city. Innovation Works hopes to prepare nontraditional, city-based entrepreneurs to successfully lead these businesses and create livable-wage employment through these ventures. The goal of Innovation Works is to help launch and grow 250 social enterprises in 10 years that will employ 5,000 Baltimore residents and attract $100M in capital to Baltimore’s under-resourced neighborhoods. This grant provided core operating support.

Le Mondo is an artist-owned-and-driven project creating a multi-use community hub and experimental performance complex in downtown Baltimore. Located on the westside of downtown within the Bromo Arts District, Le Mondo has been instrumental in helping to transform the landscape of its neighborhood. This grant provided core operating support.

The mission of the Pro Bono Counseling Project is to ensure that Marylanders with limited resources requesting mental health care are provided access to volunteer licensed mental health professionals and other necessary supportive services. In 2018, 2,677 individuals received 9,890 hours of free counseling via Pro Bono Counseling Project. This grant provided funds for a strategic planning consultant.

The Southwest Partnership is seven neighborhoods and six institutions working together to build an vibrant community in Southwest Baltimore. Residents, business owners, workers, visitors, church members, and partners in the neighborhoods of Barre Circle, Franklin Square, Hollins Roundhouse, Mount Clare, Pigtown, Poppleton, and Union Square, work to build consensus around community development priorities to create a cohesive community of choice where diversity is recognized as strength. This grant provided core operating support.

St. Francis Neighborhood Center, located in Reservoir Hill in West Baltimore, has been providing educational and community services since 1963, with a goal to end generational poverty through education and stronger community connections. This grant provided funds for program expansion.

BCF is a philanthropic foundation created by and for the people of Greater Baltimore, where many donors join together to make the region they love a better place, today and for future generations. BCF carries out its mission in two primary ways: by building a civic endowment as a permanent source of charitable support for the Baltimore region, and by helping donors plan and carry out their charitable giving. Working in partnership with others across the public, private and nonprofit sectors, BCF brings a consistent voice of leadership to critical civic issues. This grant provided funds for general operating support.

The Central Maryland Transportation Alliance was formed in 2007 as a diverse coalition of corporate and civic leaders uniting business, philanthropic, and institutional sectors around a common agenda: improving and expanding transportation options for the citizens and businesses of Central Maryland. The vision of CMTA is a thriving metropolitan area which boasts an array of convenient transportation options, including a coordinated system of highways and interconnected mass transit options providing access and opportunity for employment, housing, education, services and entertainment. This grant provided general operating support.

Since 1763, the Baltimore Public Markets (BPM) Corporation has been a vital institution serving the citizens of Baltimore City. As the oldest continuing public market system in the United States, BPM currently operates six markets, with each market being as unique as its neighborhood. This grant provided funds for strategic planning.

Baltimore Community Lending (BCL) is in its 31st year serving Baltimore through providing capital to finance critical housing projects, supporting developers working in some of the most challenged neighborhoods in Baltimore, and providing access to capital to underserved populations. This grant provided funds for an Executive Search consultant as BCL seeks its next leader.

The Fund for Educational Excellence plays a unique and vital role as Baltimore’s only public education fund. It serves as an independent partner, able to leverage deep insight into education needs and priorities, along with relationships with partners across Baltimore, to accelerate the pace of reform for public school students. This grant provided funds for fiscal agency fees for management of the Goldseker Foundation’s Neighborhood School Partnership Initiative.

Afya Baltimore, Inc. (ABI) is a nonprofit charter management organization that governs three schools: Brehms Lane Public Charter School (Grades PreK-5), Afya Public Charter School (Grades 6-8), and Tunbridge Public Charter School (Grades PreK-8). In 2014 and 2015, the Goldseker Foundation provided grant funding to ABI for the conversion of Brehms Lane Elementary School–until then a traditional neighborhood public school–to charter status. With that conversion complete, Afya then made the decision to merge the school with its original public charter middle school, called Afya Public Charter School, to create one unified school (“The Belair-Edison School”) with two campuses half a mile apart in the Belair-Edison neighborhood, where the Goldseker Foundation has been investing since the initial creation of Healthy Neighborhoods, Inc. This grant provided funding for communication and marketing work to introduce the Belair-Edison school to the community.

The Sixth Branch (T6B) was founded in 2010 by a group of veterans reintegrating into civilian life after service in America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. T6B’s founders noticed a need to provide an outlet for veterans with a desire to continue serving to become leaders in their communities and to help solve neighborhood level problems. T6B’s mission is to utilize the leadership and skills of military veterans to execute aggressive community service initiatives. From its origin as a community service club for veterans, T6B has grown to host approximately 3,000 volunteers per year from all walks of life every Tuesday through Friday and on the second Saturday of each month. T6B follows the guidance of the communities in which it serves, identifying their needs in coordination with BUILD community organizers and following through with the pragmatic approach of veteran-led culture. T6B currently stewards more than 18 acres of green space in East Baltimore across four neighborhoods; provides volunteer support to three elementary schools; and brings together neighbors, veterans, corporate partners, and Baltimoreans of all skills and abilities to improve neighborhoods in Baltimore City. This grant provided core operating support.

The Patterson Park Audubon Center’s work in Southeast Baltimore continues to improve the neighborhoods surrounding Patterson Park through community greening projects and programs that engage adults and school children in stewarding the green spaces in the city that attract and support a healthy bird population. While Audubon’s main purpose is improving the urban environment for birds, the foundation has supported the PPAC given the collateral benefits to the park, surrounding neighborhoods, and schools. This grant provided core operating support.

Belair-Edison Neighborhoods, Inc. (BENI) is a nonprofit community based organization that works to foster an environment where residents, business owners, and stakeholders feel confident to invest their time, energy, and money. BENI is a Healthy Neighborhoods and Baltimore Main Streets partner organization, as well as a HUD certified comprehensive housing counseling agency. This grant provided core operating support.

Baltimoreans United In Leadership Development (BUILD) is a broad-based, non-partisan, interfaith, multiracial community power organization rooted in Baltimore’s neighborhoods and congregations. The foundation has supported BUILD’s community organizing in West Baltimore since 2015, with a focus on door-to-door canvassing, identifying resident leaders, delivering training, convening local businesses and nonprofits, and pursuing meetings with public officials and government agencies to address issues of safety, unemployment, neighborhood blight, and lack of youth opportunities. The grant supported community organizing.

The Central Baltimore Partnership (CBP) has served as the catalyst for investment and revitalization of the area from Mount Royal Avenue north to 23rd Street, between Howard Street and Greenmount Avenue. CBP’s numerous volunteer task forces have been instrumental in the creation of hundreds of units of new and rehabbed housing, both affordable and market rate; commercial development; creating an employment recruitment and referral pipeline for area residents; and introducing a private microenterprise organization to provide small loans to area businesses. A new major focus for CBP is the planned redevelopment of Baltimore’s Penn Station. This grant provided core operating support.

Blue Water Baltimore’s mission is to restore the quality of Baltimore’s rivers, streams and harbor to foster a healthy environment, a strong economy, and thriving communities. Blue Water Baltimore was formed in 2010 from the merger of five small, geographically focused watershed organizations. Since that time, the organization has experienced significant programmatic, staff, and budget growth. This grant provided support for leadership development,

Creative Alliance neighborhood programs strive to bridge cultural, class and language barriers and generate the sense of community needed to build a safe, vibrant, inclusive neighborhood and city. It is this community-building work in the most racially, ethnically, and economically diverse area of the city that the Goldseker Foundation has supported for more than a decade. This grant provided core operating support.

The Friends of Patterson Park works in partnership with Baltimore City Recreation & Parks to ensure a safe, welcoming, vibrant, well-tended and well-used park that contributes to the health of the surrounding neighborhoods, home to more than 53,000 people within walking distance of the park. This grant provided core operating support.

Healthy Neighborhood, Inc. (HNI) develops market-driven strategies to benefit Baltimore’s middle neighborhoods–areas with significant assets but stagnant or undervalued real estate beginning to age without improvement. By investing in these properties and their improvement, providing loans to homebuyers and homeowners, marketing neighborhood assets and strengthening resident capacity, HNI works to stabilize and grow middle neighborhoods. This grant provided core operating support.

Impact Hub Baltimore is a co-working space, community center and innovation lab for social impact designed to enable organizations, entrepreneurs, community members, and partners to connect and collaborate in 8,600 square feet of flexible space. Through programming, support services, and community building, Impact Hub Baltimore connects change makers to the people, resources, and ideas they need to make a tangible impact in Baltimore and beyond. Impact Hub Baltimore’s goal is to attract and retain talent, create jobs, improve access to resources, and build visibility for Baltimore’s visionary social innovators across the city, region, and the world. This grant provided core operating support.

Jubilee Baltimore administers the Healthy Neighborhoods program in Madison Park, Mount Vernon, Seton Hill, Charles North, and Greenmount West, and serves as the housing and development partner to the Central Baltimore Partnership. In the latter role, Jubilee co-chairs and staffs the Residential Development and Marketing Task Force and coordinates the Partnership’s grant application for the Baltimore Regional Neighborhood Initiative. Jubilee’s latest large scale project is the redevelopment of the former O’Dell’s building at 21 E. North Avenue. Jubilee is also working with the People’s Homesteading Group to rehab nine long-vacant rowhouses on E. 22nd Street in Barclay, and works with the New Greenmount West Community Association to help long-term homeowners of low- and moderate-income accomplish home improvements, particularly façade upgrades and weatherization projects. This work is now expanding into the East Baltimore Midway neighborhood. This grant provided core operating support.

LEDC’s mission is to drive the economic and social advancement of low- to moderate-income Latinos and other underserved communities in the D.C. and Baltimore metropolitan areas by equipping them with the skills and tools to achieve financial independence and become leaders in their communities. LEDC is certified by the US Treasury Department as a Community Development Financial Institution and is a HUD certified housing counseling agency. In February 2014, LEDC began offering its small business lending services in Baltimore. This grant provided operating support to the LEDC Baltimore office.

Leveling the Playing Field gives underprivileged children the opportunity to enjoy the mental and physical benefits of youth sports participation. It does this through the collection of used/excess sports equipment from schools, manufacturers, individual families, and others. After being inventoried and sorted at the LPF warehouse, the equipment is then redistributed to schools, sports leagues, or other organizations serving low-income communities. At the Baltimore Collaborative Warehouse, LPF shares space and resources with four other donation/volunteer driven nonprofits. This grant provided core operating support.

Made In Baltimore is a local brand initiative aimed at growing jobs and entrepreneurship in Baltimore City’s light-manufacturing sector. The program was started by the Baltimore Office of Sustainability in 2017, and has three core functions: business promotion, business development, and research and policy development. After a successful first year of pilot programs, Made In Baltimore created a three-year plan for growth that builds on its successes and fills important gaps in entrepreneurial support for Baltimore City’s makers and manufacturers. This grant provided program support funds.

The No Boundaries Coalition is a resident led advocacy organization building a unified and empowered Central West Baltimore across the boundaries of race, class and neighborhoods. Since 2008, the Coalition has brought together residents from Sandtown, Druid Heights, Upton, Madison Park, Penn North, Reservoir Hill, and Bolton Hill to overcome issues that have maintained racial and economic segregation for decades. Currently, the Coalition focuses its organizing on issues related to safer streets, police accountability, more opportunities for young people, increasing voter turnout, and more healthy foods in Central West Baltimore. This grant provided core operating support.

Sisters Circle provides long-term mentoring to foster meaningful and sustainable change in the lives of girls and young women in Baltimore. The organization seeks to uplift women of color as they strive to graduate from middle and high school and pursue secondary education or job training. This grant provided funds for strategic planning.

The Parks & People Foundation was founded in 1984 to leverage private donations against limited public funding to support the city’s Recreation and Parks department. Over time, the scope of Parks & People’s work evolved and expanded, to include programs such as after-school middle school sports leagues, SuperKids Camp, and neighborhood greening grants to support community-managed gardens and farms. Today, Parks & People’s mission is to support a wide range of recreational and educational opportunities; create and sustain beautiful and lively parks; and promote a healthy natural environment for Baltimore. In 2014, the organization’s longtime executive director stepped down, and a new executive took the helm in early 2015. During 2015, Parks & People also moved into its new headquarters on a 9 acre campus located between Druid Hill Park and Mondawmin Mall. This grant provided funds for executive coaching.

The Fund for Educational Excellence plays a unique and vital role as Baltimore’s only public education fund. It serves as an independent partner, able to leverage deep insight into education needs and priorities, along with relationships with partners across Baltimore, to accelerate the pace of reform for public school students. This grant provided funds for a consultant to engage the City Schools learning community in modernizing its legacy instructional management system.

The University of Maryland School of Social Work Community Outreach Service (SWCOS) has operated the Neighborhood Fellows program since 2005. The program offers internship assignments for School of Social Work graduate students to add staff capacity to community development organizations working to build stronger neighborhoods in Baltimore city. This grant provided project funds.

Govans Elementary was a traditional neighborhood-zoned public school until 2014, when Baltimore Curriculum Project converted the school to charter status, retaining the neighborhood zone. At the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year, as part of the City’s 21st Century Facilities Plan, the school community will move to swing space at the former Chinquapin Middle School, while the existing facility is demolished and rebuilt. This grant provided funds for a Community School Coordinator, whose focus is on supporting families and building an enrollment pipeline to ensure that Govans successfully navigates the transition period and returns to a new facility fully enrolled.

The Maryland Alliance of Public Charter Schools is a non-partisan group that serves as a voice for charter school communities to advocate for equitable and transparent conditions for public charter schools; offer support to new and existing public charter schools; and drive the discussion around innovative educational practices that lead to positive outcomes for students. This grant provided core operating support.

Baltimore Corps mission is to build the city’s next generation of leaders by recruiting, developing, and connecting outstanding young professionals to serve as fellows at effective nonprofits, social enterprises, and government agencies to scale solutions that work. Baltimore Corps is a leadership program that has an individual, organizational, and geographic focus: it creates leadership opportunities for professionals, it also aims to expand the strategic capacity of high-impact organizations and ultimately, strengthen Baltimore. This grant is the second payment on a two-year grant approved in 2018, for core operating support.

Bard College, in partnership with local school districts, has been an innovative voice in strengthening college readiness and achievement among high school-age students since 2001, when the first Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) campus opened in New York City. The BHSEC schools are public schools that offer students two years of an accelerated secondary education in the 9th and 10th grades followed by two years of credit bearing college classes in place of the traditional 11th and 12th grades. At the end of the fourth year at BHSEC, and upon successful completion of course requirements, students earn a state high school diploma and a tuition-free Bard College Associate in Arts degree worth 60 transferable credits. This grant provided funding for the creation of a new College Transfer Office at BHSEC Baltimore.

Koinonia Baptist Church has a robust series of community service offerings, including the Project Safe Haven summer camp. Founded in East Baltimore in 1994 and operating in Northeast Baltimore communities since 2006, Project Safe Haven has been serving approximately 100 youth each summer from the community in a series of enrichment activities that promote literacy, out-of-school learning retention, recreational activities, and cultural/historical field trips. This grant provided program support for the summer camp.

Located downtown, the Loyola Early Learning Center is a preschool daycare center and early childhood education program focused on the holistic development of children–physical, emotional, cognitive, creative, social and behavioral. This grant provided funding for the first year of a new part-time social worker while the school fund raises for this new, ongoing staff position.

The Housing Upgrades to Benefit Seniors (HUBS) Collaborative was created in 2015 to bring Baltimore’s various providers of senior housing services together to remove barriers that prevent low income seniors from accessing services they need to age in place. HUBS serves residents of Baltimore City over the age of 65, who earn 80 percent or below the area median income. Social Workers based at seven HUBS sites provide application assistance to older adults to determine home improvements that will make their houses healthier and more secure. This Management Assistance Grant provided funds for a consultant to develop a shared database for the HUBS sites.

Lillie May Carroll Jackson Charter School (LMCJS) was granted a charter in May 2013 from Baltimore City Public Schools, making it the first charter granted to an independent school (Roland Park Country School) in the nation. LMCJS is now undergoing growth and changes that are crucial for its long-term organizational success. The school serves 275 students at the former Chinquapin Middle School building, but is moving to a permanent location next year–the former Paquin School on Sinclair Lane. When it moves, the school will expand to serve 350 girls at full capacity. To manage the growth and transition to new space, the LMCJS board voted on a leadership structure change to help ensure the stability of the organization as it grows, putting the executive director as the organizational head of the school (the previous model had the executive director and principal as co-leaders). This Management Assistance Grant provided funds for executive coaching.

Mariposa is a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing social emotional skills and resilience in children through authentic connection with adults. Its programs have served the Baltimore community for fifteen years, inspiring and teaching adults how to raise children in ways that build connection, resilience, and success through all communities in ways that include and understand diverse backgrounds and experiences. This Management Assistance Grant provided funds for strategic growth planning.

In January 2019, Southeast CDC’s executive director of more than a decade was appointed Director of the Baltimore City Department of Planning. In late April, the board of SECDC named a new permanent executive director, an existing staff member who had been acting in an interim capacity. This Management Assistance Grant provided funds for consulting services for executive transition and fund development.

Calvin Rodwell Elementary has served grades PreK-5 in the Howard Park neighborhood of Northwest Baltimore. As part of the City’s school facilities modernization plan, in the 2018-2019 school year, Calvin Rodwell merged with Grove Park Elementary/Middle School, became a full PreK-8 school, and moved to a temporary location at the Grove Park campus, with plans to return to a new 21st Century building on its original site in January 2020. This grant provided funds for an ongoing initiative to develop Project Based Learning at the school, and for marketing and communications related to the transition back to a new 21st Century facility in 2020.

Cecil Elementary school is a hidden gem located two blocks north of North Avenue, just east of Greenmount Avenue, in the East Baltimore Midway community. In December 2016, Cecil Elementary was awarded Maryland’s coveted EGATE (Excellence in Gifted and Talented Education) status. An initial Neighborhood-School Partnership grant from the Goldseker Foundation provided funds to create a free after-school for fourth and fifth graders. The school subsequently secured funding from the Maryland State Department of Education to double the size of the program and serve grades second through fifth through the 2020-2021 school year. This grant provided additional funds to expand the program to include first graders.

The Tahirih Justice Center exists to support courageous immigrant women and children who are survivors of gender-based violence–including human trafficking, domestic violence, sexual assault, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and other crimes–who are seeking safety and justice. This grant provided operating support for Tahirih’s Baltimore office.

Live Baltimore’s mission is to recruit and retain Baltimore City residents by attracting people to Baltimore’s thriving neighborhoods and by helping residents find a way to stay in the city. This grant provided $50,000 for core operating support, and $50,000 for the Way to Stay program.

Banner Neighborhoods Community Corporation is a community-based nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting residents in their efforts to enhance the quality of life throughout East and Southeast Baltimore. Banner offers neighborhood youth programs and senior home maintenance. This grant provided core operating support.

The Fund for Educational Excellence plays a unique and vital role as Baltimore’s only public education fund. It serves as an independent partner, able to leverage deep insight into education needs and priorities, along with relationships with partners across Baltimore, to accelerate the pace of reform for public school students. This grant provided core operating support.

ReBUILD Metro is a non-profit housing developer with broad experience in repositioning real estate assets and markets in the mid-Atlantic region, particularly Baltimore City. RBM seeks to create wealth and opportunities for the communities it serves by making real estate investments that reinforce community assets, revitalize downward markets, and create suitable environments for market growth. This grant provided operating funds for RBM’s work in East Baltimore, particularly the Johnston Square community.

Greater Baybrook Alliance is a community development organization whose mission is to act as a catalyst and conduit for equitable development and reinvestment in the Brooklyn and Curtis Bay neighborhoods of Baltimore City and the adjoining Brooklyn Park neighborhood of Northern Anne Arundel County. Due to geographic isolation, these neighborhoods have experienced long-term lack of investment. In 2016, in order to position the City-County community to access the State’s Baltimore Regional Neighborhoods Initiative (BRNI) grant program, the Goldseker Foundation provided funds for a community organizer to create the Greater Baybrook Vision and Action Plan. Out of that process, GBA was created, and has subsequently secured $2.8 million in BRNI awards over three grant cycles. This grant provided core operating support.

Garrett Heights Elementary Middle School is a PreK-8 school serving 389 students in the Lauraville neighborhood of Northeast Baltimore. The school leadership and community have rallied around a shared vision to transform Garrett Heights into a public Montessori school. A first summer of training for teachers began in 2016, and the school has continued to build the Montessori program up from the early grades. This grant provided funds to continue Montessori training for 30 instructional staff members and to recruit Montessori trained teachers.

Banner Neighborhoods is a nonprofit, community-based organization dedicated to supporting residents in their efforts to enhance the quality of life throughout East and Southeast Baltimore. Banner’s mission is to promote resident-based leadership, neighborhood pride and stability, and provide direct services. Banner Neighborhoods has existed since 1982. This Management Assistance Grant provided funds for Banner to create its first strategic plan.

GEDCO represents a partnership between more than 50 faith-based and community organizations. Its mission is to provide affordable housing, supporting services, and emergency assistance to community residents, in partnership with faith-based and community organizations. This Management Assistance Grant provided funds for strategic planning.

Since 1993, the GreenMount School (GMS) has been contributing to the educational landscape of Baltimore by providing challenging, progressive, theme-based independent education for grades kindergarten through eight. The four hallmarks of a GMS education — Theme Studies, Global and Community Awareness, Keystone Programs, and Parent Cooperative — create an educational and philosophical approach that is academically challenging, cross-cultural, service-oriented, and creative. This Management Assistance Grant provided funds for strategic planning.

Venture for America (VFA) is a nonprofit organization that aims to strengthen U.S.cities and promote job creation by directing highly-talented, recent college graduates into start-ups and growth organizations. In 2018, VFA placed 26 new fellows with 14 Baltimore companies. VFA focuses on cities that typically struggle to attract top talent, but have a strong commitment to revitalizing the regional economy through entrepreneurship. This grant provided $75,000 for core operating support, and another $25,000 challenge grant to be match 2:1 for expansion purposes.

Civil Justice is a nonprofit organization formed in 1998 for the purpose of increasing the delivery of legal services to clients of low and moderate income while promoting a statewide network of solo, small firm, and community-based lawyers who share a common commitment to increasing access to justice. Civil Justice traditionally assists clients who are low-income but earn too much to qualify for Legal Aid. Civil Justice staff believe that predatory car financing practices targeting low-wage workers in distressed neighborhoods in Baltimore is a systemic problem, harming individuals and stymieing workforce development efforts. This grant provides funds for staffing and data collection to explore the extent of the problem and develop an appropriate response.

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) is dedicated to the creation of a nationwide network of multi-use trails that enhance the environment, transportation, economy, neighborhoods and people. RTC’s work is magnified in urban areas, where one mile of trail can completely redefine the livability of a community. More than just recreational amenities, trails create opportunities for active transportation and improved health and wellbeing as they connect people to jobs, schools, businesses, and their community. In Baltimore, RTC and the Baltimore Greenway Trails Coalition, comprising nearly sixty local organizations and agencies, seek to create a 35-mile world-class network of urban trails that link together diverse neighborhoods, cultural amenities, and outdoor resources.

Patterson Park Public Charter School opened in 2005 as a K-4 elementary school located in the building left vacant when St. Elizabeth’s Catholic School closed in Southeast Baltimore. It now occupies three buildings serving 725 students in grades PreK-8. PPPCS also serves 125 students in after-school programming focused on literacy as well as more than 150 youth during the summer. During the 2017-2018 academic year, PPPCS was awarded a 5 year charter renewal by the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners, the longest possible renewal. The student retention rate is 95 percent. For the 2018-2019 school year, the school received 613 applications for approximately 50 seats. Despite the overall decline in enrollment across City Schools, Southeast Baltimore has a 1,800 seat deficit which has led to overcrowding and large class sizes in neighborhood schools. Southeast has the highest school building utilization rate in the city, with a 111 percent average utilization rate for K-8 schools. This grant provided funds for community engagement, communications, and planning for facilities and instruction as the PPPCS board and staff prepare to open a second school in Southeast.

Greenmount West Community Center is in its second year of operations, providing after-school and summer programming and internships for youth ages 5-18; GED and health and wellness programming for adults; and wider community events open to all. The young organization is now focused on developing a systematized approach to identifying, developing, and prioritizing donor prospects, and involving the board in the fundraising process. This Management Assistance Grant provided funds for a consultant to help GWCC leadership create its first resource development plan.

The Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers hosts a project called the School Centered Neighborhood Investment Initiative, which was designed in 2015 to assist communities where new 21st Century School facilities were/are scheduled to be built. The initiative seeks to increase community capacity to develop and implement physical development and/or neighborhood revitalization plans that leverage the investment in new schools. The foundation provided funding to launch the initiative in 2015. This second grant provides funds for staffing and evaluation work associated with the project.

Open Works (OW) is a nonprofit makerspace that opened in Central Baltimore in 2016 with a mission to make tools, technology, and the knowledge to use them accessible to all to drive grassroots change through inter-related educational programs and economic development. This Management Assistance Grant provided funds for a consultant to overhaul its website and better integrate its functionality with OW’s systems for membership management, class enrollment, billing, and safety credentialing.